Ideas and Insight supporting all stages of Drug Discovery & Development

Elsevier supports Amsterdam’s AI initiatives

Amsterdam, a vibrant and renowned cultural destination, has also been enlarging its reputation as an innovative scientific hub. A series of big new national initiatives, including the corporate Kickstart AI program and the academia-driven AI Technology for People initiative (which is making “AI for Health” one of its main priorities), have put the focus squarely on artificial intelligence.

Elsevier’s relationships are being strengthened through these exciting developments. For instance, a recent announcement stated that Amsterdam’s knowledge institutions will invest an additional 300 million euros in AI research and education. “It is not uncommon for AI scientists to work on technology that can be applied directly to a company,” writes Stijn Bronzwaer in NRC.nl. “The VU [Vrije Universiteit] and the UvA [University of Amsterdam] work together this way with Elsevier, The National Police, Ahold Delhaize, Qualcomm and Bosch, among others. Such collaborations will be expanded more over the coming years.”

In the midst of this thriving and growing AI ecosystem in Amsterdam, Elsevier is becoming a trusted partner through developments like the start of the Elsevier AI Lab, which has Elsevier data scientists collaborating alongside data scientists in academia. Elsevier is not just benefiting from the ecosystem in terms of talent, customer insights or outreach, but we’re also giving back talent, funding, capacities and expertise.

Amsterdam Data Science, with whom Elsevier serves as a Gold partner, is evolving as a network and is including other key corporate partners, like ING, Vodafone and Databricks. ADS just announced its five-year strategy for 2020 to 2024, and, Elsevier had the opportunity to influence and contribute to the strategy. This included supporting a stronger focus on showcasing Amsterdam as a leading data science and AI hub, which ADS ultimately made one of its key strategic focus areas. (Learn more in this piece about the launch of the strategy at an ADS anniversary event.)

Given all of this energy and activity related to artificial intelligence and data science, it shouldn’t be surprising that Europe already leads the world in scholarly output related to AI (see the Elsevier report). However, China is set to take Europe’s place in AI research very soon, if trends hold. Now is definitely the time for European capitals like Amsterdam to invest heavily in AI – and Elsevier is happy to be here as a dedicated supporter and collaborator in these endeavors.